18th September 1918 Wednesday
Shown up by the Russian Cadets
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“On the 18th Sept. the best piece of news was that the Russian Cadets had gone on to Seletskoe, found the village empty, and occupied the trenches outside the place! What a smack in the eye this was to us! The Bolos. retired at the same time as we did, and now we can’t get across the river to pursue them! What a farce!
McNair left us during the day, but his right-hand man, a Russian engineer whom we called McTavish, stayed with us to help build a new bridge across the river, which he guaranteed to have completed and ready for traffic tomorrow. Good egg! I attended to a number of military and civil sick during the day.”
“McNair was a British Secret Service man – a man absolutely without fear. He was always turning up at odd times to help us, and I always felt absolutely safe when he was about. He carried three nasty – lethal revolvers, all fully loaded & had some hair-raising tales to tell of Russia, before, during and after the Revolution.”
To the best of our knowledge there is no handwritten diary still extant and apart from various handwritten comments on pictures this is the only bit of standalone handwriting we have. We are working from a typed up copy.
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here